Curator: Valentinas Klimasauskas

Shifting list of artists:
Andrius Rugevicius, Andrius Zakarauskas, Antanas Dombrovskij, Arturas Bumsteinas, Ausra Kiudulaite, Bartosz Polonski, Benigna Kasparaviciute, Dainius Dapkevicius, Darius Miksys, Domas Noreika, Domas Rukas, Egle ir Goda Budvytytes, Gintaras Didziapetris, Julijus Balcikonis, Jurga Geluceviciute, Justas Liezuvis, Kestutis Sapoka, Melissa Paulsen, Liudvikas Buklys, Mindaugas Lukosaitis, Noomi Ljungdell, Rafal Piesliak, Rudolfas Levulis, Saulius Ketleris, Stasys Banifacius Ieva, Jurga Juodyte ir Saulius Leonavicius, Tautvydas Bajarkevicius, Titas Silovas, Tomas Martisauskis, Vacys Nevcesauskas, Valdas Stanionis, Vytautas Narbutas, Viktor Tikrai, etc.
Enthusiasts is a debut show, which tries to reveal conceptual and stylistic differences between works by the participating artists and also creates new links between artists/works and constructs a new set of framing contexts. The show presents more than 20 artists in a way suggestive of producing a new set of friends or a new rendezvous space. The exhibition gathers a range of specially commissioned, site-specific, as well as work made by the artists in the last few years. It is for most of the participants a debut: they are debutante exhibitors. The notion of the debut — in relation to contemporary art, pop music, and media culture — is central to the curatorial theme of the exhibition. A number of the works in the exhibition cover this ground and ask how many debuts are necessary to become a star (a Vilnius debut, a Berlin debut, a New York debut for example)? What impact has reality television and the proliferation of television shows as ‘talent searches’ on our idea of first appearances. And what of comebacks, we might ask? Enthusiasts wonders, whether the art-system should explore, or reflect upon, the star-making system: or leave it well alone?

Excerpts from multi-interview test given to artists:
Valentinas Klimašauskas: What is, in your opinion, a typical example of contemporary art (work, author, etc.)?
Arturas Bumšteinas: Dmitrij Nagijev’s TV program Okna [Russian talk show].
Antanas Dombrovskij: Exhibition Bismuth Monk, work: Bismuth’s Video Switched Off.
Liudvikas Buklys: Wim Delvoe’s Cloaca: a shit-making machine.
Gintaras Didžiapetris: The BMW triennial that has just ended.
Tautvydas Bajarkevičius: Ryoji Ikeda’s Matrix.
Tomas Martišauskis: Jeff Koons.
Valdas Stanionis: I am ashamed to admit it, but I haven’t been interested in art history until now. Although I was doing a little of everything: drawing, moulding, carving and even knitting.

Valentinas Klimašauskas: The author of which work by another artist or which author you would like to be?
Bartosz Polonski: I would like to be somebody between Harmony Korine and Zach Liebermann.
Liudvikas Buklys: : R. Mutt. 1917.
Jurga Juodytė ir Saulius Leonavičius: We would like to drink together with Christo and Jeanne-Claude, and to smoke with Gilbert and George:)
Gintaras Didžiapetris: I would like to perform for Cindy Sherman’s photographs.
Andrius Rugevičius: I would like to be Merlin Menson for a while.
Kęstutis Šapoka: I would like to be for a while in Jurgis Kunčinas’s novels as one of their characters without the author knowing it. However, I wouldn’t like to be the author of his works.
I would also like to be the author of Truncated Trees by Jonas Švažas.
Tautvydas Bajarkevičius: Of the work of art the author of which could be anyone.

Valentinas Klimašauskas: Which artist and/or artistic period inspire you most?
Bartosz Polonski: Generative art http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generative_art, Aesthetics & Computation Group MIT Media Lab.
Andrius Rugevičius: This period inspires me most, of course, and before, the 1970s and their architecture, engineering, elegance, etc. I have breathed in quite a lot of www.monolake.de.
Titas Silovas: Well, I still like Maurizio Cattelan.
Tomas Martišauskis: Rachel Whiteread and the new wave of British art related to her.
Kęstutis Šapoka: I would like to live one of my lives during the first half of the 19th century Vilnius, to study at Vilnius University together with Adomas Mickevičius and his generation. This does not mean that what inspires me is Mickevičius‘s work.
Jurga Juodytė ir Saulius Leonavičius: Different authors, works, ideas from the 1950s until now, from Duchamp to YBA, from what we have seen to what we don‘t even remember.